


All strings attached

by armethaumaturgy



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Light Bondage, M/M, Multi, masi has abandonment issues and mochi manages to trigger them good fucking job
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 19:02:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9398720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armethaumaturgy/pseuds/armethaumaturgy
Summary: It seemed like a good idea, interesting and unusual. He agreed, if only to get to see the stunned look on Rune’s face.





	

**Author's Note:**

> you can read on tumblr as well [here](http://esper.co.vu/post/156118976579/)  
> i keep forgetting to crosspost here so if you want more fics go there im a lazy ass

It seemed like a good idea, interesting and unusual. He agreed, if only to get to see the stunned look on Rune’s face.

Erblu’s hands are a little too skilled as they wrap rope around his thin wrists, a little too good for full comfort when he moves to Masi’s ankles and secures them to the bed posts as well.

“Alright?” he asks when he’s done, pulling away to look at the scientist. His chest rises and falls in tandem with his breathing; his muscles tense under pale skin when he tugs his arms a bit, unable to move them more than a few centimeters at most. The sound of the angel’s voice pulls his out of his thoughts and he looks to the side, at his bound hand.

“Yeah,” he replies quietly.

“Okay, I’m gonna wait for Rune, he should be back soon. Can you wait here alone?”

Mastermind’s mismatched eyes narrow and his lips curl into a sneer. “I’m not a kid,” he hisses out lowly, eyes flashing dangerously as if to remind Erblu that he’s still a grown man.

The angel laughs and stands up. “Alright, we’ll be here in a moment.”

And with that, he leaves the bedroom, flicking the lights off as he goes. It’s probably for later, so Rune doesn’t see him immediately, and yet it sends a chill through the inventor. With the curtains drawn, it’s dark enough that he can’t really see much.

He says against the bed in anticipation, settling himself on the covers. His kind wonders what the others will do when they come back in.

* * *

He glances at the door, for the fifth time in just as many minutes. It stays dark and closed and he swallows heavily.

He’s not sure how long it had been since Ain left; he’s probably exaggerating in his mind. He shuffles, toes already a little numb as he wiggles them.

What’s taking so long? Elsword should’ve been home by now. He’d only gone to Ariel to get a new part for Apocalypse for him. It was a great plan, since the part only arrived yesterday and he didn’t have the time to go pick it up himself yet.

Rune had been all too willing to go get it for him. So where is he and Erblu?

Panic grates at the edges of his mind. Suddenly the ropes biting into his skin feel tighter, along with his chest. The all-too-familiar pain stabs at his insides.

“Erblu!” he calls out, voice going higher than he’d anticipated. “Erblu!” he repeats when there’s no answer for a minute, and there’s a definite touch of hysteria creeping into his voice.

His breath hitches and he tugs at the bindings on instinct. They don’t give way -  of course they don’t give way, they’ve been tied properly. Masi’s chest stutters.

It feels like he’s being dragged underwater as his ears start ringing.

Oh _El_.

Erblu left him here.

Tears pick his eyes, gathering on his lashes while he desperately blinks to clear them away. It’s too quiet in the bedroom -  he can hear each of his stuttering, pathetically hitching breaths louder than ever, and the sound of the rope stretching to its limit-

It makes him want to vomit, makes his stomach do a sick flip. The inventor gulps heavily, throat barely cooperating with him.

“Er… blu…” he forces out, but it’s barely a sigh, not audible even if the angel had been standing by the door.

Which he isn’t. Ain had left him here, sure he couldn’t get himself free, and then probably went off somewhere with Rune, knowing Masi couldn’t interrupt them. His Dynamo is shut down inside his lab, Apocalypse is in its charging station, equally shut down, and he simply doesn’t have enough strength to break out of the ropes.

He tries anyway, tugging at them with all the power he can muster up. He pulls so hard he arches off the covers, shoulders straining as he yanks. His breathing is shallow, too shallow by now, quick and ragged.

Panicked.

Of course Ain would, he never was too fond of him from the start and only warmed up to him because of Elsword. It shouldn’t surprise him…

And yet, it does.

Masi’s tears are fat and stinging as they roll down his flushed cheeks. He’s far beyond the point of being able to blink them away and everything in the darkness is blurry.

He doesn’t want to be left alone. The reality of his own uselessness hits him hard, like running full speed at a brick wall.

“Erblu! Rune…!” he calls out, choking at the names along with the tears.

If Erblu wanted to be alone with Rune, he should’ve just said so, not tie him up like this…

A sob rips from his throat and he pulls again, succeeding in little more than making the bed posts creak.

His chest hurts with every inhale and it feels like the rope is wound around his neck as well now. The biting warmth of the ropes morphs into ice cold, unpliable metal and it chokes him. The rustle of rope is replaced by the clanking of chains.

Masi’s head lulls to the side and his teeth bite down at his shoulder in an attempt to regulate his breathing. It doesn’t work.

Erblu left him here, he isn’t coming back, and neither is Rune. He’s all alone, wrapped up in cold chains again, and it hurts.

His sobs are muffled as he cries into his own shoulder, body trembling and making the chains clink mercilessly with each miniscule movement.

He’d been abandoned.

* * *

Elsword is right on time, but he isn’t alone. Ariel and Luriel are right behind him, each with a stack of boxes in their arms, so high they almost obstruct their faces.

“Mochi!” Rune whines, “Ariel needs help carrying these to the market.”

Erblu blinks at the three of them and Ariel takes it as an opportunity to pipe up.

“Elsword offered your help,” she says in that chipper voice of hers, yet Rune’s soft groan as he readjusts his hold on the boxes lets him know that it had been Ariel who actually volunteered them.

Luriel hands him her stack with nothing short of a grateful huff, shoulders flexing to relieve the tension.

No wonder, the boxes aren’t exactly what you’d call ‘light’. With a sigh, he follows the way-too-enthusiastic Ariel down the road, Rune in tow. They carry the boxes of El-knows-what (since Ariel decides not to let them in on the secret) all the way to the Velder market. Mayu awaits them; the boxes are for her then, by the looks of it.

“Thank you for your willingness!” Ariel chatters, smiling a bit too sweetly to be genuine. Then again, she’s always like that.

Rune rolls his shoulders a bit with a heavy exhale, but Erblu is startled by the clock tower chiming away in the distance. His eyes go wide.

“Masi,” he utters under his breath, the following 'oh no,’ nothing more than a breath. It must’ve taken more than he’d thought to get here with the boxes and Ariel’s not-quite-fast lead.

He grabs Rune’s hand and yanks him, already hurrying back. Rune falls into step with him, frowning at the back of Erblu’s head.

“Mochi? What’s the rush?” he asks, confusion evident in his voice.

“I left Masi alone,” Erblu explains, biting the inside of his cheek.

“And? He likes his alone time, you know that,” Rune points out and it makes Erblu bite down harder, until the whole left side of his face aches faintly.

“I-” he falters, squeezing Rune’s hand. “I left him tied up. We weren’t supposed to go out.”

Rune’s only answer is a soft 'oh,’ at first. He picks up the pace. “Masi’s gonna be _pissed_. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I know… It was supposed to be a surprise.”

* * *

If only he’d been angry. If only he’d huffed and chewed them out for being slow pokes.

No, it’s much, much worse. The sounds of the inventor’s sobs reach far down the hallway, letting the two of them hear it before anything else.

They don’t bother with undressing, not even taking their shoes off by the door as they rush to the bedroom. It’s bathed in darkness, and when Erblu switches the light on, his heart sinks so deep it feels like it hits the ground.

It couldn’t have been more than an hour, but it’s much longer than the ten minutes he’d promised Masi. And it shows.

Masi’s whole body is shuddering and not just from his hiccupping cries. The part of his face not pressed deep into the crook of his own shoulder is red and stained with tears that are falling down like waterfalls.

Erblu is by the bed in a heartbeat, shadowed by Rune, both their faces the perfect masks of guilt.

“Masi,” Erblu calls out, reaching a hand out to brush Masi’s sweat and tear slicked fringe out of his eyes and announce his presence. “Masi, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Masi’s head snaps up and he looks at Erblu with a mixture of disbelief, betrayal and pain.

“Er-blu…” he mutters, voice breaking midway due to hoarseness, “Let me go… Please please please…! You can be alone with Rune all you w-ant just- plea-se let me go,” he begs, fat, shimmering tears rolling down the rivulets lodged in his puffy cheeks.

Ain’s heart shatters, fingers freezing completely in the locks of Masi’s hair. “Masi, Masi, I’m sorry. That’s not how it is… Let me get you out of this…”

The angel looks at Rune with a helpless expression, having to gulp a couple of times before he can choke out, “Help me?”

Rune doesn’t hesitate a single moment, a tiny flame singing the rope on Masi’s wrist until it falls off, nothing more than a pile of ash.

He does hesitate, however, when Masi hisses, voice cracking in a pained cry. He’s much more careful with the other limbs, and soon the inventor is curling up on himself, appearing so much smaller than he really is.

“Masi,” Erblu coos, forcing his trembling voice to be as level as he can get it to be. “May I hold you?”

He catches sight of Masi’s wrists, red and leaking with blood where the rope had dug into skin so much that it created a full line of chafed off, bloody skin. Ain winces in sympathy, grimaced in guilt.

Masi’s magenta eyes, swimming in a pool of tears, look up at him, though how clear the image is is dubious. Clear enough to know who he is, at least, as he shakes his head sharply, as much as he can with it still being halfway mushed into the mattress.

From behind him, Rune tries, “Can I touch you, Masi?”

This time, after a brief moment where Masi presumably places Rune’s voice in his terrified state, he nods, so soft and slow that were they not paying full attention to him, they’d easily miss it. Rune gently scoops Masi up, maneuvering him so his head is placed on the redhead’s lap, hair splaying in all directions and body curled up on itself even still.

“I’m so sorry, Masi,” Erblu murmurs, kneeling by the bed so he’s eye level with the white haired boy. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Masi sobs, crying his eyes out into Rune’s stomach while his boyfriends run their hands through his hair feather lightly, waiting with patience for him to calm down.

It takes long and painful minutes, but with the soft warmth of being pressed against Rune, he slowly stops crying, sobs receding into nothing but wheezy breaths.

“Rune…” he whispers, sniffling and pressing further into the knight’s stomach.

Mochi moves the white fringe out of Masi’s face, soft as he can. “Masi…”

The boy shudders, eyes snapping up at the angel, stricken with something akin to fear. “Erblu…”

“Masi, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you for so long. I’m so sorry. So so sorry.”

Masi’s whole body shivers and he looks away, curling even further in on himself. Ain’s chest constricts painfully; he bites down on his lip.

“Masi, can I hold you?” he asks softly.

The inventor obviously hesitates, but he nods gently, minisculely. Erblu sits onto the bed and pulls Masi so he’s sprawled on both their laps.

“Masi, I really apologize, this shouldn’t have happened,” Erblu says, patting Masi’s matted hair.

Probably unconsciously, Masi leans into the touch and sniffles.

“Just… tell me,” he whimpers, “if you want to be alone… with Rune. You don’t… have to tie me up…”

The words feel like continuous stabs, and Erblu keeps patting his hair, even though his hand feels numb. “Masi, that’s not what happened… I’m so, so sorry, we had to follow help Ariel. I never wanted to leave you, I promise, I’m so so sorry.”

Masi sniffles, rubbing his cheek against Ain’s shirt to wipe off his tear streaks. Erblu holds him closer.

“I am so sorry. I’ll never tie you up again. Never leave you alone again. I’ll be here.”

“And I’m here, too,” Rune whispers, holding tightly onto Masi’s hand, mindful of the line of blood on his wrist. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re right here with you.”

As those words get repeated softly and genuinely, Masi’s erratic heartbeat calms down and he relaxes somewhat in the others’ holds.

“Want to lay down?” Erblu asks, and at Masi’s nod, Rune and him kick off their shoes and lay down on the king sized bed, sandwiching Masi in between them, conscious not to be too up on him.

“We’ll be here, okay?” Mochi murmurs, pressing the softest butterfly kiss to the junction on Masi’s neck. “We won’t leave. As long as you need, alright?”

Rune hums in agreement. “You should rest, okay? We’ll be here when you wake up, I swear. We’ll make it up to you, love.”

Masi hums, sniffling softly again. His body feels so heavy, the result of his panic attack combined with the adrenaline washing away.

He shuffles between his lovers, soaking in the warmth of their bodies as his consciousness fades into darkness.

They keep their word; they’re still curled up around him when he wakes up. They’re already up and greet him with soft 'good morning’s.

He feels lethargic, but much, much better than when he’d gone to sleep.

“I’ll go make breakfast, okay?” Rune says and waits patiently until Masi hums in understandment. Erblu stays right where he is as Rune slips out of the room. His arms are wrapped around Masi’s midriff, a gentle and comforting touch.

“I’m so sorry for yesterday, Mochi says softly, with more genuineness than Masi thought possible. "Ariel asked us for help. I didn’t mean to be gone for so long, Masi.”

Masi hums quietly.

“Let me make it up to you. How about staying in bed today?”

Masi hums again, presses back against Mochi. “Can I wear your coat?” the scientist asks.

With a soft chuckle, Mochi tell him that 'yes, he can’.

“And no ropes anymore?”

“Absolutely no ropes. Just soft cuddles, how about it?”

“That sounds good…”

Rune is back by then, with a tray carrying breakfast and coffee and tea for them. He helps wrap Masi up into Erblu’s coat, and then they sit against the headboard to enjoy their food.

The coffee is made just the way Masi likes it, and warms his fingers as he holds the mug.

They do keep the word, and don’t leave the bed all day, not until Masi himself doesn’t choose to.

They decide not to try such surprises again.


End file.
